Podcast Episode 03 - The Pre-Release Vita Show

 The PlayStation Vita will launch in North America in less than a month! Launch games are discussed alongside Sony's beautiful hardware deisgn.

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Dragon's Lair - Review - Sony Tablet S

My childhood was spent in the 80's. The cold was was at an all time high. Pop culture exploded with Michael Jackson. Spielberg and Lucas were at the top of their game. Saturday morning cartoon's  where treasured alongside a bowl of Pac-Man Breakfast Cereal. Arcade's ruled across North America. Every city center and small town had one.

In the movie theaters of 1982, a huge offering of blockbuster genre films rolled out. E.T., Blade Runner, Tron, The Thing and Rocky III hit the screens. There was also a delightful animated feature film released. One that would have a lasting impact on future artists. To this day it remains one of the greatest animated film's of all time.

Don Bluth's The Secret of Nihm.

My family and I watched it recently once again on blu-ray. What a fantastic film. In today's "wink-wink" to the audience and hardy laugh fest animated features, The Secret of Nihm is a masterpiece. Flowing with style and filled with heaping amounts of substance. There is a "NO B.S." stance this film takes. There is humor, sadness, tragedy and hope. Watch it today and it will knock your socks off. When I saw this film back in the day, as a child, it made such a lasting impression. It is my favorite animated film of all time. Don Bluth became one of my heroes afterwards.

A year later, Dragon's Lair hit arcades across North America. Animated by Don and his team at Bluth Productions. Like The Secret of Nihm, it was gorgeously animated with a classical style that had been all lost by the Walt Disney Studios.

However as a child, to play Pac-Man, Galaga and Donkey Kong at the time with those sweet pixel graphics, then to see a Dragon's Lair arcade cabinet seated beside them. Wow! It blew my mind away. From pixels to flowing beautiful movie images was incredible.

I would only play Dragon's Lair a handful of times in 1983. It would be ages until home adaptations started appearing, most notably the classic Commodore Amiga version from ReadySoft. So, Dragon's Lair would have a lasting impression, like The Secret of Nihm, only more special because of the game's unobtainability.

Today is a differnet story.

You can obtain and play the game anywhere. Your Android or iPhone mobile devices. You can easily purchase a blu-ray remastered edition or download the classic off the PlayStation Network.

The Android Market edition of Dragon's Lair arrived a little over a month ago. It is based off of the recent HD remastered edition. The game has never looked, sounded or played as well.

In Dragon's Lair you "control" Dirk The Daring on his quest to rescue the Princess Daphne from the evil Singe The Dragon. Your "control" of Dirk are reactionary movements to the dangers you encounter. Heck, this game is the origin of "quicktime events", that are in every blockbuster game today. Control does feel limited, however as a mobile gaming experience, Dragon's Lair provides a great play and value for the consumer. It is a great game to play on the go with it's simplistic controls and casual length of game play.

The player encounters a series of rooms within the Dragon's evil castle. These rooms flow randomly to keep the game interesting, as no two games play alike. Challenges await Dirk from magical weapons, pits of lava, to a Lizard King, on your way to Singe and his ever expanding treasure room. The beautiful Princess awaits Dirk's rescue. Oh my, the child within me giggles in delight. Oh what joy!

 It's interesting that arcade games of the past, have become such entertaining, casual mobile gaming experiences. Dragon's Lair is another great example. Hopefully Bluth's other games Space Ace and Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp find their way onto the Android Market soon.

Dragon's Lair is available for $4.99 and is worth every penny.

Back In The 3rd Dimension

It's been a while since I played with my PlayStation branded 3D monitor. Life, baby and work have been busy to say the least.

Wow!

That was my first reaction to firing up the glorious vision before my eyes. Yes, the monitor is beautiful.

Off to the world of Motorstorm Apocalypse I explored. Visions of heavenly destruction before my very eyes. Speaking of which, I put those 3D glasses on and focused on the monitor, there was no strain or moment of adjustment to experience dimensional imagery. That I was very impressed about.

So it was a variety of races, many that I even achieved 1st place in. Hooray!

I also viewed a bit of Tron Legacy as well. It remains one of the best examples of 3D since Avatar. Olivia Wilde still remains a beautifully captured vision within the film's digital space. Glorious!

My time with 3D was cut short. Baby is awake. Vast journeys have now ended. Time to tackle real life adventures. ;)

The State of The Sonic Union - Winter 2012 Edition

See that picture on the left? We'll get to that in a moment.

Sonic's 20th Anniversary has been nothing but a success. Fans new and old have been enjoying the rewards of the past 2011 with such treats as Sonic & Sega All-Star Racing, Mario & Sonic At The London 2012 Olympic Games, Sonic Generations and Sonic CD. These titles have tickled every Sonic fan by presenting something new and something old with a strength of quality. What gaming delights indeed!

Now back to that picture.

It was just announced that Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode 2, will be ready for a release sometime this year. It will feature the return of a beloved sidekick (Tails) and a dangerous enemy (Metal Sonic). Oh, 2012 is off to a great start! What else can we look forward to?

Sonic Generations has quietly been announced for the PlayStation Vita. Not many details have surfaced about this title, being either a port of the big console experience or an original title.

What else can we look forward too? Only time will tell. Sega has said they are very pleased with Sonic Generations. It established an awesome groove for "The Blue Blur", one that they are going to follow up with quiet nicely.

Cheers! ;)

Sony CES 2012 *BOOOOJE!!!!*

This week marks the big Consumer Electronics Show. Samsung, Microsoft, Philips, ect. A big focus of this blog has been Sony and their presence at shows past has been impressive.

CES 2012 will hopefully mark a huge return for Sony, with details on the PlayStation Vita, their Cybershot line, expanding Walkman series and their ventures within the Tablet computing arena.

To get the full up to the minute 411 on their presence, head over to Sony Blog for live streams and juicy news tidbits. :)

GTA III - Behind The Scenes

I've been playing plenty of Grand Theft Auto these days. GTA IV has been gloriously moonlighting the PS3 these days. Of course, the deliciously addictive GTA III has been rocking the Sony Tablet S.

In a previous blog post, I admited how impressed I was with converting such a legendary, big console experience to mobile devices. Yes, it is impressive stuff. You should honestly just purchase the title right now. Don't worry. I'll still be here when you get back.

Recently, Rockstar Games has been posting behind the scenes details about GTA III and it's development.  Check it out! ;)

http://m.rockstargames.com/newswire/article/19861/grand-theft-auto-iii-your-questions-answered-part-one-claude-dar.html

Madden NFL 12 - Sony Tablet S - Review

Today is the last day of the NFL regular season as my beloved Green Bay Packers battle the Detroit Lions in "The Motor City". Every Sunday has been exciting to say the least for Packers fans. As a Super Fan, one would like to experience the NFL on the go. Luckily, Madden NFL 12 does the job well.

Featuring a well tuned, played experience, the mobile edition of the classic pigskin game is awesome. Graphics are very nice, with good looking player models and animation. The touch controls work very well, as a virtual joystiq controls your football avatar as simple touches and swipes complete passes, kicks and tackles. Commentary can be heard throughout the game, however just like it's big brother console edition, it gets repetitive very quickly.

As good as it sounds, there a few things missing. No multiplayer and franchise mode whatsoever. *sniff* They are missed. If implemented, we would have had a pretty impressive package. However, the $4.99 price tag helps the soothing of field play burns. That is the killer deciding factor for mobile gaming. It's very inexpensive, cheaper than a subsandwich or hamburger. Realistically, I'm not expecting the full $59.99 HD console experience on my mobile. What there is, makes for a fun and exciting time!

Update: The Packers beat the Lions 45 to 41. Hooray!